Nightsongs (play)

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Nightsongs (Nynorsk: Natta syng sine songar) is a 1997 play by Norwegian writer Jon Fosse. The story follows a young couple who have just had their first child. The husband wants to be a writer but is repeatedly rejected by publishers, while the wife grows tired of their situation. The play premiered in 1997 at Rogaland Teater in Stavanger, directed by Kai Johnsen.

critics described Fosse’s distinctive style: Hans Rossin of Dagbladet said the work sits in Fosse’s form—minimal, with a surface of brief speech that hides deep emotions and tense situations. The play can feel like a straight realist picture of a town or an abrupt, anti-realist allegory about human life today.

In 2002, a London performance at the Royal Court Theatre drew a negative review from Charles Spencer in The Daily Telegraph, who called it pretentious and boring and said its aim is to make the audience feel the characters’ depression, with limited success.

The play was adapted into a 2004 film, Nightsongs, a German production directed by Romuald Karmakar, starring Frank Giering and Anne Ratte-Polle.